T-shirt printing - Screenprinting v's Digital

Posted 22.06.2010 @ 11.01AM

Hey guys,

Have been visiting printers lately and looking at the quality of digital over screen printing. Screen printing is superior in quality but my designs have lots of colours so it is probably not practical.

Digital would be ideal but looks a bit plastic, almost like an iron on transfer.

Are there any new digital technologies that produce close to screen printing quality out there on the market?

Posted 22.06.2010 @ 11.15AM

Posted 22.06.2010 @ 11.25AM

Hey Bubbles -

Try Longina Phillips = www.lpd.com.au/

they have pretty nice digital printing on to fabrics. A bit expensive if your just starting out - I'd suggest looking at your prints and seeing if you can work them down to a few colours to get them screen printed..

Posted 22.06.2010 @ 11.51AM

There's digital transfers & Direct to Garment Printing (DTG) . It sounds like you're looking at the transfers. Threres a few DTG printers around, its like an inkjet that prints direct to the shirt. Should last plenty of washes but not as many as a screen print. Quality can be really good too.

A quick googling DTG Sydney will find you a big mix of printers & machinery distributors, so wade thru & check out the printers.

Posted 22.06.2010 @ 12.45PM

Yeah as fishmonster said your chasing DTG but its expensive because the price/set up cost is the same for 1 shirt or a 1000 shirts. You could also try www.dayoldblue.com Das Monk use to use them not sure if they still do but the quality is like a soft hand plastisol but not as durable...

You can also ask screen printers if your designs will work as 4 colour process to simulate more than 4 colours. But I have even found screen printing 6 colours is cheaper than digital prints you just have to find the right screenprinter - www.redoctopus.com.au were the cheapest I could find, I'll let ya know what the quality is like in a week or two when I get some product back if you want...

Posted 22.06.2010 @ 3.20PM

Thanks for all your help guys!

I usually do my own patterns but am looking at sourcing ready-made garments. I remember seeing one from the UK some time ago. It was a company that specialised in selling ready-made garments to the fashion industry. So not just your run of the mill American Apparel stuff.